Ozaukee/Washington

Fuel company seeks to divert Cedar Creek for pipeline fixes

An Illinois fuel distribution company wants to dig up 100 feet of the bed of Cedar Creek in the Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area to repair two sections of the same regional pipeline that ruptured last July and spilled gasoline in a Town of Jackson farm pasture.

West Shore Pipe Line Co. is seeking state permits to divert water around a 280-foot length of the creek and excavate the streambed west of county Highway G.

The 10-inch pipe must be exposed so workers can repair degraded metal beneath the stream and prevent a possible spill to the creek and wetlands, a consultant for Buckeye Partners LP says in documents filed with the state Department of Natural Resources.

Buckeye Partners operates the line for West Shore. Repairs could include welding metal sleeves onto the outside of the pipe or replacing sections of the line.

Contractors for West Shore have been repairing nine other sections of degraded pipe this summer in a hardwood swamp within the publicly owned wildlife area in the Town of Jackson.

Crews have completed repairs on seven of the sections along 3,900 feet of pipeline right of way in the center of the wildlife area, said Ben Callan, a DNR water management specialist.

The two degraded sections of pipe beneath Cedar Creek are south of the nine targeted for repair this summer.

Even more pipe repairs might be done this year at the wildlife area, Callan said.

The consultant, Arcadis U.S. Inc., has notified the DNR that it intends to request permits to excavate as many as four additional sections of the pipeline in the Jackson Marsh, Callan said.

Two are along the right of way about one-fourth mile south of Pleasant Valley Road. Two others are along Evergreen Creek, a tributary of Cedar Creek, where it crosses the pipeline on the north edge of the hardwood swamp.

The proposed work in Cedar Creek and adjacent to Evergreen Creek would bring the total number of pipeline repairs in the wildlife area to 15.

No decision on the requested permits for Cedar Creek dredging can be made before late August to allow time for public comment, according to Callan. Comments can be forward to Callan at his DNR email address: benjamin.callan@wisconsin.gov.

A public meeting on the permits is not scheduled. For information on the project, or to request an informational meeting, write to: Ben Callan, 101 S. Webster St., P.O. Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921.

Dams to be erected

Dams made of steel sheets would be installed upstream and downstream of the work area in the creek, as part of the plans submitted to the DNR. The site is a short distance upstream of an electric power line that crosses the creek.

Water flowing in the creek would be pumped through pipes around the dams. An estimated 150 cubic yards of muck would be dredged from a 100-foot-long stretch of the creek bed to expose the pipeline.

The regional fuel distribution pipeline from northwest Milwaukee to Green Bay was built in 1961.

The pipeline right of way through the Jackson Marsh is more than two miles north of the section of pipe that ruptured in July 2012 in the 1800 block of Western Ave. An estimated 54,600 gallons of gasoline spilled in a farm pasture west of Highway G, and drained into fractured dolomite rock within a few feet of the surface.

Tests have detected benzene in a total of 44 private wells since July 2012.

Town residents living near the spill site will be waiting until the spring of 2014 to be connected to a new permanent water supply. The Jackson Town Board has approved a plan to extend municipal water mains from the Village of Jackson.

Internal inspection of the West Shore pipeline from Milwaukee to Green Bay was ordered by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration following the spill last year.

In addition to the 15 repair locations within the Jackson Marsh, at least 11 other sections of pipe between Germantown and West Bend have been excavated and repaired this year.

West Shore remains under a federal order to operate the line with reduced pressure until repairs are completed.

About Don Behm

Don Behm reports on the environment, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and communities in southeastern Wisconsin. Behm has won reporting awards for investigations of Great Lakes water pollution, improper disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production, Milwaukee's cryptosporidiosis outbreak and the deaths of three sewer construction workers in a Menomonee Valley methane explosion.